A Desolation Called Peace

i'm writing this immediately after finishing the book, right at my no-more-renewals library due date, so i might feel differently after it's had time to settle (like what does/will dekakel onchu do after all that? is that a loose thread or not?), but right now: the story's conclusion was satisfying and hit all the right notes for me. it felt like closing a window, conclusive, final, but the universe would go on beyond it. i wasn't sure i'd like the eight antidote POV sections at first (i thought they'd fall somewhere between being very young but not in expected mannerisms, à la ender's game, and adult-writing-a-child) but they and the rotating POVs grew on me. i think a minor gripe was just that sometimes the text would progress entirely chronologically between characters and sometimes a POV switch would take you back in time to experience the same scene from another angle. and the we POVs were a bit purposefully opaque. besides some of the more blunt characters (like sixteen moonrise), i also lost track of some characters' political ties and motivations over time; there were so many different approaches to conflict and i wasn't ever 100% sure i was remembering certain details correctly. at the same time, though, that nuance was fun and the discontinuity human.

the romance was overall sweet, and i thought left off in a good, realistic way. reminded me a bit of the abyss surrounds us in terms of power dynamics, but much less harsh (that one had pirates and their prisoners and a toxic hate-love situation) while simultaneously being much more full of microaggressions that were alluded to but not addressed head-on between the characters. like even when they were fighting about it they weren't, and apologies happened through intent only. some steamy stuff happens though. a memory called empire took place over what, a week? this one, less than? hard to say, but either way my girl three seagrass was down bad.

my page 444 status update was me having my mind blown. how wide is the concept of “you”? except now i see “the world, the empire” in the status update got annihilated because it was between yskandr-voice angle brackets and goodreads didn't like it. that's hilarious.

i also read this via a combination of hardcover, ebook, and audiobook while at home and on the road. the audiobook properly served its purpose of injecting the book into my earholes, but even after i got used to the narrator i found the speech patterns chosen for mahit dzmare and three seagrass incongruous with what i imagined for them, and especially so after three seagrass is described as having a clear alto voice in chapters eleven and fifteen. via audiobook, she comes across as too high-pitched, girlish, and whiny to me, rather than the kind of steady poet, diplomat, and orator i imagined her to be. the scenes in which neither character spoke were much more tolerable.